1) It’s one of the folk demons of our era, so students feel that they’re being trendy and ‘edgy’.

2) It’s a strongly emotive taboo, so students feel that they’re being provocative and ‘adult’.

As an examiner, I often found the actual performances rather tedious - and herein lies the first danger.

Because experienced teachers have often seen this type of drama
hundreds of times before, they can become desensitized to its ‘shock
value’. They may forget that less experienced adults aren’t so blasé.

Also, students can sometimes get carried away with shocking the
audience. This can lead to self-indulgent histrionic acting - and herein
lies the first clue to avoiding disaster: style (more of which later).

First, let’s first look at the teacher’s role in the process. It’s a
tricky balancing act. The teacher will often provide initial stimulus
material to give the students ideas. However, the exam explicitly
requires the students to take ownership of the process and the product.
It would be quite wrong for the teacher to tell the students what to do
and then direct them. The teacher’s job is to float around as a
‘facilitator’, offering advice and suggestions and constructive
feedback.

Let’s say that the students get excited about the
idea of devising a drama based on sexual abuse - and the teacher sees
trouble ahead. The teacher can gently nudge the students in different
directions, but it would be wrong (and counter-productive) to overrule
them - except for reasons of safety. Teenagers can quickly become
petulant if they feel that they’re ‘being treated like kids’ and will
argue (quite rightly) that it’s their drama and they can do what they
like (within reason).

One important aspect of the drama
teacher’s job is to conduct a risk assessment. Usually this just means
making sure that the students don’t do something stupid like jump off a
lighting gantry or bring in a gun. But in the case of sensitive issues
(like rape) it can also involve a psychological risk assessment. The
first thing I would do is have a quick chat with the Head of Year and
flick through the students’ files to check for any indications of sexual
abuse (you get used to knowing what to look for).

If there
were indications, then I’d probably decide that the psychological risk
was too great. Schools are inappropriate places for psychodrama, and
although drama teachers often have psychological expertise, we’re not
psychiatrists.

Obviously you can’t tell students “You can’t do
a play about rape because I think one of you may have been raped”. So
I’d probably risk their wrath by telling a series of white lies, e.g.
“Drama examiners are fed up with plays about rape, so you may not get
very good marks” (probably true) - or “Management says no because it’ll
upset your parents” (also probably true).

If there were no
signs of sexual abuse, then I’d risk the wrath of management and give a
cautious green light - with two provisos:

1) Avoid psychodrama.

2) Concentrate on style.

Returning to our case study, the sacked teachers seem to have made two
big mistakes. First, they failed to nudge the students away from graphic
depictions of sexual abuse (tricky, but teaching is mostly about
nudging). Second, they failed to warn the audience beforehand about the
graphic content (which is just plain stupid).

Let’s return now
to style. Watching teenagers role play sexual abuse is mostly a problem
of style rather than content. I would therefore ask the students to
focus purely on the technical aspects and the nature of the shock they
want to create in the audience.

When I was at drama school, I
saw a brilliant performance by a visiting Bosnian theatre troupe about
the raw horrors of their recent civil war. Some of the actors had
traumatic personal experiences. Their depiction of a rape camp was one
of the most effective stylized pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen.

The soldier and the victim stood on opposite sides of the stage, facing
the audience. The soldier mimed in slow motion the act of violation,
while the woman mimed in slow motion the pain of being violated. The
physical distance between the actors represented the emotional distance
between human beings in war and rape. It was utterly chilling and
poignant. Every member of the audience was deeply shaken. The idea of
anyone complaining afterward that it was ‘gratuitous’ would have been
absurd. It was profound.

Teenagers usually get themselves (and
their teachers) into trouble when they confuse shock for value. One of
the (many) jobs of the drama teacher is to constantly nudge students
away from tedious or embarrassing histrionics.

I suspect that,
in our case study, the real reason why the teachers were sacked wasn’t
so much to do with safeguarding children as safeguarding adult
sensibilities. Style can get you out of a lot of tricky situations.

In
every situation where atrocity is normalised, in every death-camp and
gulag and apartheid city, there are those who refuse to participate. The
soldier who ignores the kill order. The prison guard who walks away.
The families who risk their safety to shelter refugees. The men and boys
who see rape and violence occurring and have the courage to say 'stop'.

2 comments:

Here's one good example. I was looking at representation of gender in the media, and asked some of my Year 12 students to bring in magazines they read. Most of the boys read lad mags like Zoo and Nuts - which are basically soft porn.

One day, another teacher came up to me in a drama lesson with a sheepish lad in tow. "I just found so-and-so showing this to other students in my lesson" he said, showing me something that the Head would probably have used as a safeguarding issue - i.e. a picture of a topless woman. "He says that you told him to bring this in. Is that true?" "Yes" I sighed. I then turned to the lad. "But you know you shouldn't have got this out in another teacher's lesson, don't you?" He nodded like a little boy caught stealing sweets. "I'm sorry" I said to the teacher. "I'll tell my class not to get out media work in other lessons."

The other teacher looked uncomfortable. "I'm not sure whether I should report this" he said. "Look" I sighed, "the kids read this crap all the time. Why is it ok to sell them this stuff but not ok to criticize it?" He nodded uncomfortably. "Ok, I think you know what you're doing, but watch out. Other teachers would probably go straight to the Head and you could be in a world of trouble". "I know" I sighed. "Thanks."

* * * * *

I don't think the subject matter in itself was the problem. It comes up in PSHE all the time. Sexual abuse is even hinted at in drama with Year 7 in a scheme of work about Childline (all done in the best possible taste, I hasten to add). What seems to have triggered a storm in a tea cup is the graphic style of the piece - which was perhaps 'ill advised'.

It would have been difficult for senior management to intercept this through a 'quality assurance' check beforehand. These devised pieces often only come together at the last moment - and sometimes not even then. Ultimately, it was down to the supervising teacher (and their line manager) to spot any potential problems. However, if the students added the graphic content at the last moment, it could have slipped through without being picked up.

I think that sacking the teachers was an over-reaction. But perhaps it fits some internal power struggle? There is a general backlash against the 'liberal' arts going on at the moment in education. Apparently all our social problems have been caused by the permissiveness of the 60s rather than corrupt banks and politicians.

Nothing new

"Gratidius excitabat fluctus in simpulo, ut dicatur" ("Gratidius raised a tempest in a ladle, as the saying is") ~ Cicero, 'On the laws', 1st century BC.

It's difficult to teach students about business and the 'real' world these days without getting sacked...http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/ford-india-apologises-for-advert-showing-silvio-berlusconi-driving-car-with-three-women-bound-and-gagged-in-the-boot-8548331.html

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About Me

I am a fully qualified teacher of Drama, Media and Film Studies with ten years’ work experience in secondary and further education. I graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama (one of the most respected Drama conservatoires in the world) with a first class Honours degree in Drama and Education and a PGCE.
I was a writer-in-residence and workshop leader for a Southend-based youth theatre for ten years, during which time I developed my creative writing skills to include playscripts, poetry and songs. With my deep interest in Film, I have now expanded these skills to include screenplays.
I now wish to take a sabbatical from teaching to focus on a proposal for a PhD thesis. This will involve developing new collaborative methodologies for intertextual musical theatre in the context of a resynthesis of art, philosophy and science.
My specific areas of interest and expertise are as follows: Academic, Acting, Analysis, Assessment, Auditions, Collaboration, Creative Thinking, Directing, Drama, Education, English, Film, History, Lecturing, Literature, Media, Poetry, Philosophy, Playscripts, Screenplays, Songs, Teaching, Television, Theatre, Tutoring, Workshops, Writing.

I’m writing a first draft for a musical. It's called Marty Gull (Marty[r] Gull[ible]). It's a surreal, satirical, tragicomic piece of musical political theatre: a cautionary tale of school politics, backstabbing egos and the state of the nation.

I’ve written the first draft libretto using a medley of melodies in my head from well-known musicals.

I would like to extend an open invitation to all budding musicians and composers to submit their own musical interpretations. I would also welcome interest from actors (age 20-25) who can sing and dance.

The plan is to develop a new collaborative form of musical theatre. Once we get a good working team of lyricists, composers, musicians, actors and designers together we can decide on the final evolution of the piece and arrange copyright accordingly. I would like to submit or even take the piece to Central as a work-in-progress.

Ultimately, I would be interested in using all of this as a springboard for a thesis on new art forms and musical theatre. But, most of all, I would love to have the opportunity of working with kind, creative and talented people.

If you like the sound of any of this, please post a comment at http://martygull.blogspot.com/or get in touch with me through one of the following methods: